skating popularity in japan

If you have been reading the Barry Mittan articles on the main Golden Skate site, you may have noticed the following quote in reference to how Takeshi Honda began skating:

"Honda doesn't come from a skating family. Skating is not very popular in Japan."

I question this statement. Not because I know for sure otherwise, but from competitions I've seen skating seems to be HUGE there. I can remember one NHK where it seemed like 1000 girls ran down the aisles to throw flowers at Sasha Abt. I have also heard that Fumie is considered a huge star there.

Also, it is difficult to imagine having such a tremendous crop of young, talented skaters in a country where the sport is not popular.

Can anyone speak to this? Could he possibly be referring to when Takeshi was a child (which was not really that long ago)?

skating popularity in japan

kirkyo:

At one time figure skating was not a big thing in Japan, but with champs like Midori Ito and Yuka Sato, it certainly has started to gain popularity. You will note that, Takeshi trains in Canada which shows the lack of training available in Japan. I think that will change too. They have yet to produce ice dance champions, but I am sure they are working on it!

Skating not popular in Japan? Hardly! There're unbelievable scenes during the last group of the Men's event at Worlds in Nagano! Sometimes I really thought people'd storm the ice! And all those flowers! I've never ever seen that much on an ice surface before! WOW!

IMHO the Japanese fans are some of the best in the world. They're addicted, but never fanatic in a nationalistic sense. They love the skater because of the skater. And they're really original and creative in their fandom - have you ever seen this site with all those lovely lil' skater icons?

It seems pretty popular there! Naoko Takeuchi is Japanese and created "The Cherry Project" a figure skating manga (like a comic) If you would like more info on it, you can check out my website at http://www.reisei-sa.net/cherry/index.html